Skye – natural materials Scroll to learning area

Two year old Skye plays with a basket of natural materials, shells, sticks, stones etc. with another child and the practitioner. They talk about the objects and what they can do with them.

Good for looking at

• COEL – Play and exploring, Active learning, Creating and thinking critically
• Object play
• Expressive art and design
• Supporting speech and language
• Effective practice
• Natural materials
• Learning outdoors

Two year old Skye plays with a basket of natural materials, shells, sticks, stones etc. with another child and the practitioner. They talk about the objects and what they can do with them.

Notice

• What Skye is interested in? Look out for body language and non-verbal gestures as well as verbal
• What she communicates during her play?
• What Skye is learning?
• What the adult does to support and tune in to Skye?
• What effect the environment and materials have on her play?

Recognising

What did you recognise about:

• How Skye is learning? Did you see any evidence of the characteristics of effective learning?
• The areas of learning and development that were covered through her play activity?
• The adult’s role – how did she support Skye, particularly her speech and language?
• The importance of the environment and the materials?

Responding

What would you do next?

• How could you extend Skye’s learning?
• Did watching the clip help you notice any particular strengths or weaknesses that you might have when trying to support children’s speech and language during their play?
• Could you suggest a way of encouraging this kind of play with opened natural materials in your own setting? How would you choose the objects? Would they differ depending on the age of the children?